February 25-26, 2012 - London Walks

Greetings All,

After a bit of a lie in and breakfast we headed out to Covent Garden by way of the tube as I wanted to shop at Carluccio's an Italian restaurant and store to get some truffle oil that a couple of recipes I wanted to out try asks for.  We also popped into the Apple store as Fred wanted to check out a Apple iMac and I was looking for a stylus to use with my iPad.  The picture on the left is one of 200 Faberge Eggs that are situated around London as part of the Big Egg Hunt which lasts for 40 days until Easter.  On our travels today we spotted 5 eggs; only a hundred and ninety five to go LOL.

As it is a beautiful day we walked through St James's Park, and it is quite busy.  The daffodils are starting to bloom along with the crocus that are coming to a end.  Even the crane on the right is enjoying the sun basking on the shore of the lake in the park.  We continued on covering old territory but we always seem to come across something new.  We stopped in at the Gallery a local pub near John and Adrienne's flat.  Since our last visit at Christmas the inside has been upgraded and it has a new food menu that looks quite good. We sat outside and enjoyed a pint of bitter and 1/2 pint of cider before heading back to the flat for the evening.


February 26, 2012,

The boy headed off to Wembley for the Carling Cup Final, Liverpool versus Cardiff City.  I headed out for a walk along the Thames; the weather was once again beautifully warm and sunny.  The Southbank which is on the Thames was absolutely jammed with people all out enjoying what Adrienne had told me was the first real warm spring day.  I continued walking all the way to Borough Market about a 3.5 mile walk.

I came across four more eggs and as the tide was out there was an area of beach where sand sculptures were being done.  The picture on the left is of an old style ship and face.  The other which I posted on Facebook was of Batman and Robin looking quite gay sitting on a couch. It took me about 2 hours to reach the market with the crowds being quite thick in some places.  As well a lot of the walkway was torn up or under repair in preparation for the Queens Jubilee and the up coming Olympics.  With the crush of people out today just due to the amazing weather, I really hate to think of how busy London will be once the Olympics arrive.   I decided       
against walking back to the flat along the Thames and took a water taxi from the Tate Modern to the Tate Britain which is more or less just around the corner from the flat. The fee was very reasonable and you can use the Oyster Card which is travel card for the transport system in London.  It was a nice relaxing ride away from the crowds that took about 15 minutes from Tate to Tate.  While walking back I managed to fall because I was not paying attention to where I was walking.  A nice young cyclist stopped and helped me up ensuring that I was okay.  I reassured him all that was hurt was my pride.  I went down so fast that I did not get a chance to tense up so I did not hurt myself and was only slightly embarrassed falling on a busy street.  I decided to have a late lunch as Adrienne and I are meeting up with the boys at around 8:00 p.m. for supper at the Cask another pub in the area.  So I visited the White Swan and enjoyed a nice large glass of merlot, barbecued chicken wings and garlic cheese bread.  The wings were the best I have had since leaving Canada other than the ones I have made myself.   Adrienne and I met up with the boys for a celebratory supper and drink as Liverpool had won the Carling Cup.

Monday we headed back to Liverpool with hopes of visiting Chirk Castle in Wales, however, the weather did not co-operate so we headed directly back to Liverpool after enjoying a great 5 day mini vacation.  We hope that you have enjoyed this portion of our blog.

Ta ra,

Sandy & Fred

Feb 24, 2012- London Bound via Winchester

Greetings All,

Today we headed off to London with stops in Bath and then Winchester.  We had passed a Gypsy camp the previous day but due to traffic could not get a photo.  We are able to pull over and took a couple of photo's much to the anger of the resident.  He shouted at us and gave us the finger a number of times so a couple of very quick takes as I did not want to upset him further or risk getting shot at.  I had heard about gypsy camps from one of Fred's aunts but never dreamed we would see one especially in the Cotswolds.  We only stopped briefly in Bath as we had toured the town extensively last year.  I wanted to check out Kitchens, a shop Fred's cousin recommended.  After our brief stop we headed to Winchester,  home of Winchester Cathedral.

We took the back roads and came across a number of signs for Tank Crossings as posted on the right. Unfortunately I did not realize that someone had written on the sign as it was one of a number that we came across but traffic made it impossible to get a picture. 

Winchester developed from the Roman Town, Venta Belgarum and was once the capitol city of England.  The Cathedral is one of the largest in England with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic Cathedral in Europe.  The cathedral was originally founded in 642 and was known as Old Minster.  Construction of the existing cathedral began in 1079 and was completed on April 8, 1093.

The picture on the left is of the ceiling of the nave.  It continues to amaze us the quality and craftsmanship of the builders of the time who only had basic hammers and chisels for stone work.  Much of the limestone used to build the cathedral came from The Isle of Wight.  When Henry VIII declared himself the head of the Church of England the cloister and chapel house were demolished but the cathedral remained.

Many important historical events took place in the cathedral from funerals, coronations and marriage of various kings and queens over the years.  Jane Austin was buried in the cathedral and the picture on the right is her marker

As well around the choir there are a number of mortuary chest that house the
remains of Saxon Kings that were first buried near the Old Minster.  These remains cover the years 611 to 1100.  Additional pictures will be posted on our Flickr site as there is not enough space on blog to allow for the posting of all of them.  We spent a good hour and a half exploring but due to our late arrival things were shutting down for the day, so we missed out on visiting the crypt and treasury room.  After wandering around the old part of Winchester, we had supper at the Royal Oak, a quaint little pub that was quite busy.  Winchester is a place that I think is worth a revisit to explore more of the old town.

We next headed to London for our weekend with John and Adrienne as the boys are off to the Carling Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.  For me the drive is very nerve wracking as it was dark and I hate driving at night even as a passenger.  We arrived safe and sound in time to hit the local pub for a nightcap.

Cheerio for now,

Sandy & Fred

February 23, 2012 - Lacock Abbey & Village

Greetings All,

After a good breakfast we headed off to the county of Wiltshire to visit Lacock Abbey and Village.  The Abbey was founded early in the 13th century by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, as a nunnery of the Augustinian Order.  The countess laid the first stone on April 16, 1232 and the first nuns were veiled in 1232.  The Abbey prospered until the mid 16th century when Henry VIII dissolved all monasteries and sold the Abbey to Sir William Sharington who converted it into a house and demolished the church portion of the abbey.  We were fortunate  as the crocus and snowdrops were in bloom as seen in the picture on the left hand side.  In addition there was an art exhibition by Derek Kinzett, a wire sculptor, called Inner Spirit.  The picture on the right is titled "Wood Spirit" and the scuptures were scattered around the grounds.  The Abbey while now a ruin is in very good shape and we can see remnants of some of the

paintings that once adorned the Sacristy. The picture on the left is of the warming room the only place in the abbey that would be heated for the nuns.
The cauldron is made of bell metal and was made in Belgium in 1500.  We spent a good two hours exploring both the ruins and the house.  The property passed to the Talbot family in the 1750's. The main hall of the house has a large number of terracotta statues around it that depict religious and historic figures as well as residents of the house.

Lacock has been used as a film location for a number of films the most notable being The Harry Potter series Chamber of Secrets and Half Blood Prince. With both of the pictures of the bottom being in the films.

We explored the village and stopped for a pint and 1/2pint in the pub before heading back to The Lamb Inn.  On the way back, we stopped for some photo's in Bilbury another quaint village that is about 15 minutes from Burford and looks like another great place to stay with the Swan Inn which is part of the Cotswold Inn Family being at this location.  Back at the Lamb we relaxed before having supper in the pub again good food but pub fare and not as elegant as our first night.

Cheerio for now,

Sandy & Fred

February 22, 2012 - Lamb Inn, Burford

Greetings All,

We headed out on a mini break to the Cotswold's, one of our favourite areas of the UK because of its quaint villages.  We booked a 2 night special for the price of one which also included a 3 course meal on the evening of your arrival.  As we were leaving Liverpool Fred received a text from his brother John that he had received both tickets for the Carling Cup Final at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.  This was good news for us as we would have had to drive back to Liverpool to get Fred's ticket if John had only received one.  So less driving for Fred and more time in London for both of

us.  We stayed at the Lamb Inn, a building that was originally weaver's cottages when it was built in 1402.  The picture above is of our room which has an original medieval window.  Our dinner was awesome.  We started with an amuse bouche of carrot and coriander soup before our appetizers of scallop and langoustine with cauliflower puree and seaweed salad.

My main course was a Cotswold fillet steak with truffled dauphinoise, shallot and fried cep mushrooms.  Fred had sea bass with fennel, tomato dressing with crab tortellinis.  We then received a pre-dessert from the chef; chocolate cake with clotted cream, which was to die for and really could have been our dessert.  My dessert was a chocolate orange battenburg cake with chocolate thyme ice-cream.  The cake was so so as it was covered in marzipan not an ingredient I like but the ice-cream made up for it.  Fred had a "Trio of Hazelnut" which consisted of creme brule, hazelnut semi-freddo and hot chocolate.  All this delicious food was accompanied with a very nice Italian red.  I didn't write down the name of it and we don't remember its exact name.  The service was excellent with the staff being very attentive but not overbearing.  Dinner entertainment came in the form of a British women who made sure everyone knew it was her 64th birthday and was very nosy asking very inappropriate questions of a young couple who actually answered her.  We took our coffee and scotch in the upper lounge which was nice and quiet as we were the only two in it until you know who arrived on the scene.  Our coffee came with petite fours which consisted of marshmallow, red current jellies and coconut covered in white chocolate.

We lucked out as the loud one didn't stay long and thankfully did not try to pull us into any conversation with them as I would probably have been rude and it would have ruined what was a amazing night.

Cheerio for now,

Sandy & Fred

Dec 26 - 27, 2011 - Boxing Day & The British Museum

Greetings All,

Boxing Day and I had it all to myself.  Fred had headed back to Liverpool with John and Nicholas for the match Liverpool v Blackburn.  After a nice lie in I headed out for some breakfast and a leisurely walk around Hyde Park.  As stated in earlier blogs the weather has been springlike and while walking through the park I came upon a tree that was coming into early bloom as seen in the picture on the upper right.  The geese are also enjoying the sun and springlike weather and they were getting bread from people out enjoying the weather or the Winter Wonderland which is a mini fairground that comes to Hyde Park during the Christmas Season.  As a note of reference bread is very bad for water fowl as it bloats in their stomachs, this is something we learned on one of our visits to a National Trust site earlier in the year.  I avoided The Winter Wonderland area like the plague because of the crowds and screaming rug rats.  I enjoyed the gardens which were well away from the fairground before heading back to the hotel to relax and read.  Keith and Sandra had made arrangements to meet up with me at the hotel so we could head to The Savoy Hotel together to meet with Adrienne for drinks.  The Savoy is very posh indeed.  Our glass of wine cost as much as a decent bottle but was served with elegance.  You get to taste the wine to ensure it is to your liking.  We were also given a tray of olives and nuts.  Keith treated us and after a relaxing time we headed off on our separate ways.  Adrienne and I walked down to Whitehall to catch a bus back to the flat as from there I know my way back to the hotel by bus.  There was a one day strike on by the drivers on the tube system so they were closed down and the buses were very busy.  Once back at the flat I headed off to the bus stop.  Adrienne walked me there quite unnecessarily but the family were concerned that I might get lost as my sense of direction totally sucks. Don't you just love it when family cares that much!  So on the bus and safely back at the hotel I had dinner at the hotel.  Fred finally returned after a long day and was frustrated as they only drew 1-1 with a team near the bottom of the division.  Oh well, it's just a game but it seems so much more to the guys.

For our last day in London Fred and I decide to visit the British Museum. 

We have been to the museum on a previous visit to London but didn't seem to get very far.  This time we focused on Medieval Europe and Britain.  The picture on the left is a shoulder shawl that was found in Wales dating back to 800 BC.  It sure makes you realize how little history Canada really has, this is stated from a purely Canadian point of view.  The picture on the right is a skeleton from the iron age that was found in Cambridgeshire.  We spent about three hours covering this small segment of the museum. So much to see and so little time but we are lucky as we know we can return to the museum another time to exploration it further.  We headed off walking through Covent Garden and then along the Strand stopping for lunch at a pub near Horse Guards.  Unfortunately, our choice was not very good.  We picked a pub that was hidden up a small alley.  Pubs in little alleys tend to be good, not this one and it should remain hidden as far as we are concerned.  It took almost a hour to get a sharing meat platter (ham, salami and breads) and the choice of ale and cider sucked.  Lesson learnt, check out the drinks first before ordering food.  Finally after lunch we headed back to John and Adrienne's to catch up on e-mails and relax.  Supper tonight was at the Antelope Pub, our last family dinner together for this trip. I had a club sandwich and cheesy chips and Fred had sausage and mash.  We had a great  dinner with everyone and said our good-byes as we were all headed back home tomorrow.  Another great Christmas for us in London!

Cheerio All,

Sandy & Fred

December 24-25, 2011 - Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Greetings All,

Today was moving day for us. As it was Christmas Eve Day we were heading to The Marriott on Park Lane for the next four days.  Keith had requested that they stay at John's for Xmas Eve and Day so that Nicholas could have more of a Christmas atmosphere.  A late morning and a tidy up we took the bus to the Marriott and got settled in.  After a relaxing afternoon we changed for Christmas Eve and headed back to the flat.  The family headed off to the Christmas Carol Concert at the Royal Albert Hall while Fred and I remained at the flat.  We had opted to not attend this year and we enjoyed a quiet time with the dogs enjoying a glass of wine or two.

Once the family returned we had a wonderful supper of Duck Lasagna, salad and garlic flat bread with a number of different red wines.  Dessert was a Raspberry Rolonde.  It has been a tradition of the London Parkins to open gifts on Christmas Eve and Nicholas was ecstatic.  He was the house elf delivering our gifts from under the tree.  Santa was good to all and everyone was pleased with their presents.  We headed back to the hotel via bus and as it was still relatively early for us we head into the bar for a nightcap after getting rid of our coats.

Christmas Day - After a nice lie in and we had breakfast at the hotel.  London's buses and tube shut down for Christmas Day so we set out to walk to the flat on another lovely springlike day.  It seems we were not the only ones out for a stroll.  The picture on the right is of the Horse Guards at Wellington Arch who passed us while we were on our way and we were stopped by tourists asking the way to Hyde Park.  As I said earlier there was no transit service and we were amazed by the number of people who were stranded looking for service.  You could only assume that where ever the tourists were from they were used to having some form of public transit on Christmas Day.  The walk was nice and much different from a year ago when we were in a deep freeze and had snow. As we neared the flat we saw two police officer on
horseback, with the horses in the festive spirit wearing antlers while on patrol.      

We enjoyed smoked salmon/caviar blinis and Prosecco while relaxing and playing with our presents.  I received an iPad 2 from Fred and am trying to figure out how it works by playing around with it.   I am not very successful to say the least and decided to leave it until I am in much quieter surroundings with fewer distractions.

Supper was beginning to smell awesome and once again John and Adrienne have outdone themselves in providing an amazing Christmas Feast.   The table was beautiful as always and again each of us had a special treat on our plate.  Our supper was yummy; turkey, roast potatoes, parsnip chips, pureed Brussels sprouts, sausage stuffing, cranberries and gravy.  John provided us with a number of  very good red and white wines.  Dessert was a choice of my baked goods, Xmas pudding or cake.

Supper was at 3:00 p.m. also a London Parkins tradition and once the leftovers are dealt with we headed out for a walk around Westminster to walk off our supper.  Amazingly enough it was very busy especially around the Parliament Buildings and the Abbey.  We stopped to take some photos and Fred and I became separated from the group and then separated from one another.  I decided since I know the area well enough I would just venture out on my own and take the photo's that I wanted.  As I started to cross the Westminster bridge I ran into Fred so united again, we headed off to take pictures.  We finally returned to the flat after about an hour of walking.  Everybody else had already returned but sadly the cleanup had not been completed.  We pitched in and so a big job was completed in no time.  More drinks and at around 9:00 p.m. we were offered yet again more food.  Panatone, baked goods or turkey sandwiches if we wished.  Fully sated we headed back to the hotel on foot having enjoyed yet another amazing Christmas Day.

Cheerio for Now,

Sandy & Fred

December 23, 2011- Westminster Cathedral & The Grenadier Pub

Greetings All,

Fred and I headed out in the morning to explore the Westminster area of London.  On our previous visits to London we have said we really should visit the cathedral that John and Adrienne had pointed out on one of our pub crawls.  The weather again was amazing, springlike as we headed out.

The Westminster Cathedral (the Roman Catholic Cathedral) was built on a site that originally belonged to the Benedictine monks who had established the nearby Westminster Abbey.  It was purchased by the Archdiocese of Westminster in 1885 and is the largest Catholic church in England and Wales. After two false starts the Cathedral's construction was finally started in 1895 and was built in a style heavily influenced by Byzantine architecture.  The Cathedral opened in 1903, however, the interior design was hardly started due to economic reasons and the death of the principal architect John Bentley who did not leave any designs or sketches.

As a result the subject and styles of the mosaics in the cathedral have been influenced by donors as well as designers and is overseen by a committee formed just for this purpose.  The first mosaics were installed in 1912-1916 and a second set were installed between 1930 - 1935.  No more were installed until 1950.  Installation of mosaics appears to be completed on a decade by decade basis.  What has been completed is absolutely breathtaking.  Check out my Facebook or our Flickr site or additional pictures.

After our visit we continued to walk along Victoria Street to the Parliament Buildings and then along Whitehall to Trafalgar Square.  We stopped at the Silver Cross Pub for lunch which is across the street from Horse Guards.  We then headed down the Mall and decided to cut across St James's Park.  One of the things I love about the UK is that flowers continue to bloom all year round.  The winter pansies and other seasonal flowering plants were in bloom in the park.  As it started to spit rain we cut our walk short and hopped on the tube back to John and Adrienne's.

We relaxed for a few hours at the flat before heading to Zuma to meet with Keith and Sandra for sake, wine and for Nicholas a cola.  After Zuma we headed to the Grenadier Pub for a family dinner.  We all had a different variety of food and I had the best salad I have had for some time.  After supper we hopped into cabs back to the flat for dessert and a nightcap.  As well the pups Ziggy and Casper got to open a couple of their Christmas presents as they had quite a few and J&A didn't want them to get over excited on Christmas Eve.  Nicholas tried to get into the act as

well but his Dad said he must wait for his presents.

Another great day for us and a good night with family.



Cheerio for now,

Sandy & Fred